MOSCOW. Sept 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has confirmed the detention and arrest of Nariman Dzhelyalov, who is the deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars (designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia), over an explosion at a gas pipeline in Crimea in August.
"A section of gas pipeline was bombed near the populated locality of Perevalnoye in the Republic of Crimea on August 23, 2021. It was established during search and investigative operations that this act of sabotage was organized by a unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in the city of Kherson, by the so-called Tavria operative service with the help of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars organization, banned in Russia," the FSB press center told Interfax.
On September 4, FSB officers detained residents of Crimea: Dzhelyalov, the intermediary, and Asan Akhtemov and Aziz Akhtemov, who blew up the gas pipeline, it said.
"On orders received from one of the leaders of the banned Mejlis, in June of this year, the perpetrators went to Kherson in Ukraine, where officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate trained them in how to use explosives. Ukraine's military intelligence promised to pay them a financial reward of some $2,000 for this act of sabotage. The explosive device was secretly delivered to Crimea in July of this year," the FSB said.
The masterminds planned to time the bombing to coincide with Ukraine's Independence Day, it said.
According to the FSB, the act of sabotage was organized by Riza Yagyayev-Veliulayev, a Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate agent who fled Crimea after a foiled terrorist act in August 2016, which he helped organize, and his supervisors - Ukrainian military intelligence officer Maxym Martynyuk and his immediate supervisor, head of the Tavria operative service Viktor Zelinsky.
"The aforementioned act of sabotage was authorized by Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Kyrylo Budanov, a participant in the thwarted act in 2016, during which he killed a Russian FSB officer," the press center said.
The local security agency has opened a criminal case on sabotage charges, which carry from ten to 15 years in prison.
"All those detained have been remanded in custody as a restraining measure," it said.